The Santa Cruz Conference on Developmental Biology, organized every two years starting in 1992, has become a key meeting in the US to bring together developmental biologists working in different fields and organisms but on related problems. The rapid pace of discovery in developmental biology in the past decade has resulted from the finding that critical developmental processes are often strikingly conserved across organisms, so that insights obtained in any one system can fuel advances in other systems. Yet the number of meetings in the US where developmental biologists working on vastly different organisms can share insights and educate one another are few. The Santa Cruz Conference, which was a smashing success in both 1992 and 1994, meets the need for such a forum. It provides an important complement to the Developmental Biology Gordon Conference, which has a similar focus but which is organized alternate years and always on the East Coast. The Santa Cruz Conference is in particular much more accessible (in terms of travel time and travel expense) than the Developmental Biology Gordon Conference to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty at institutions west of the Mississippi. This conference covers all the key elements of development, from the establishment and patterning of body axes to the development of complex organs including the brain. The chosen speakers are not only among the most active in the field but are also articulate thinkers who should generate useful discussion by integrating their work and ideas with those in other fields. Particular care has been taken to include speakers from fields outside those typically represented at previous developmental biology meetings. Thus, an entire session is devoted to plant development and one to activity-dependent processes in nervous system wiring. The meeting roster contains a balanced mixture of promising young scientists near the beginning of their careers and established, senior scientists. Approximately one third of the speakers are women. Six of the speakers are from outside the US. In addition, six slots are being kept open to select speakers from among the applicants, for short talks on exciting late-breaking developments. All participants (except speakers) will present posters on their work, ensuring maximum communication and exchange of ideas among participants.